1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to miniaturized combat toys such as jeeps, tanks, combat terrain settings, fighter planes, jets, space ships, space stations and general fortresses More particularly, the present invention relates to such combat devices and settings which are made up of several components which may be collapsed to simulate their destruction.
2. Prior Art
Combat action toys have long been a popular item with children. Miniaturized figures, weapons and combat terrain have long been used to entertain children ho would conduct battle activities between attacking and defending forces.
Such activities have found their setting in simulated conflicts between cowboys and indians, opposing armies of warring nations, cops and robbers, and even non-human characters comprising machines, beasts and virtually every other type of character. Modern imagery has extended the battle field from conventional terrain settings of buildings, bridges and mountainous country to exotic space dimensions having space stations exotic combat vehicles and virtually any option setting of historical or imaginative interest.
Typically, a combination of devices and figures are used to present the full spectrum of activity for any given battle scene. These devices are generally divided into attach and defensive weapons U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,145,049 and 4,342,556 are representative of prior art devices wherein an attack weapon is used against a target.
In addition to play action attack devices, there are those devices which have been adapted to spring apart, simulating an explosion. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,747,874, 4,509,760 and U.K. Pat. No. 2,068,246 illustrate several target devices which are embodied with means for simulating a direct hit by an attack device. Typically, such devices require physical contact either by an impacting missile or by the operator's hand to cause release of spring loading means within each device, resulting in its component parts flying apart.
Finally, it has long been a practice within the toy industry to develop radio controlled vehicles which enable a user to direct vehicle travel and related activities to be remotely controlled by transmitter. U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,270 is representative of such devices.
Although play action figures and devices for simulating combat by the conventional or space war setting have generated a variety of combat and defensive toys, there is still lacking the responsive realism during a combat encounter in which the target is destroyed, without physical contact of the user's hand or actual contact from a falling object such as a bomb or missile. In most cases, the play action toys involve mere imagination as to physical consequences of a combat encounter. For example, the child merely knocks over figures in an army position or he informs his "enemy" that his attack jet has just destroyed their line of tanks. Although flashing lights and combat sounds are generated by state of the art electronics, there is still lacking a sense of realism which arises where the target explodes apart without need of physical contact and at the activation of the child who is manning the attack vehicle.